New tipping standard - 25%?

There's still debate about whether leaving 20% for the server who does a good job is the right amount. Some still maintain the standard should be 15% or 18% (not servers, though, who think 20% is just fine).

Now comes a story in the New York Postthat says some Manhattan waiters now expect more than 20% and that a Cornell University professor did a study of 9,000 credit card receipts from a restaurant in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., that found more than 30% of patrons left more than 20%.

It's all an example of what former NYC waiter Steve Dublanica calls "tip creep." Dublanica, to whom I have talked for stories about tipping, is the author of Keep the Change and creator of the waiterrant.net blog. Servers generally don't get the $7.25 federal minimum wage -- often less than a third of it -- so of course depend on tips to pay the rent.

Readers, have you ever left a 25% tip, and what do you think the reward for good service should be?